Today we presented "„Research on the manner, scope and impact of harassment on victims of mobbing“", within the framework of the final conference, organized by Glasen Tekstilec - Shtip.
The following gave their presentations: Kristina Ampeva, from Glasen Tekstilec, Maja Ristova, author of the research and lawyer, Svetlana Cvetkovska from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Frosina Serafimovska from the State Labor Inspectorate and Tanya Ivanova from Reactor – Research in Action. The detailed agenda is available here.
One of the constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia is the right to free access to work, which right is correlated with the right of the employee to be protected from any type of harassment in the workplace.
The right of an employee to protection from harassment at work is regulated in our legislation by the Law on Protection from Harassment at Work, adopted in June 2013. The purpose for which it was adopted is "prevention and protection from psychological and sexual harassment at work", i.e. the workplace and ensuring a healthy working environment" (Article 2 of this Law).
The Law on Protection from Harassment at Work distinguishes between two types of harassment at work: „Psychological harassment at work and sexual harassment at work“. According to Article 5, paragraph 1 of the Law, „psychological harassment at work is any negative behavior by an individual or group that is repeated, continuous and systematic, constitutes a violation of the dignity, integrity, reputation and honor of the employee and causes a feeling of fear or creates discomfort, humiliation, the ultimate goal of which may be a violation of physical and mental health, compromising the professional future of the employee, termination of employment or leaving the workplace”. According to Article 5, paragraph 2 of the Law “Sexual harassment, within the meaning of this Law, is any verbal, non-verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature, which aims at or constitutes a violation of the dignity of the candidate for employment or the employee, and which causes a feeling of fear or creates discomfort, humiliation.”
In order to conduct a "field" research on the situation in this area, the Association for the Protection of Workers' Rights "Glasen Tekstilec" began work on the project "Report mobbing, do not remain silent, we are not gender equal with mobbing", a project supported by Reactor - Research in Action and their partners, through the action "Promoting gender equality through the EU accession process". Within the framework of this project, expert Maja Ristova was engaged to conduct research in order to establish the manner, scope and impact of harassment on victims, i.e. on persons subjected to harassment.
More specifically, this research consists of a quantitative part, that is, it was conducted using a paper-based data collection technique, on a sample of 986 respondents. The quantitative part was conducted in the period from 01.07.2022 - 01.08.2022.
The report includes an overview of key findings, a detailed analysis by thematic sections and questions, a description of the methodology used, sample structure and instruments (structured questionnaire for the quantitative part).
Key findings:
The survey was conducted on 986 respondents employed in the private sector, mainly in the textile industry. It is important to mention in this report that the interviewers who conducted this survey are recognized by the target groups, are part of those work environments, and the survey was conducted outside the employer's work premises.
For this research, it was important to see the prevalence of mobbing in the workplace, especially in the private sector and the textile industry, whether workers recognize mobbing, but also whether they know and use existing mechanisms for protection against mobbing.
When asked whether the respondents were informed by their employer about mobbing and whether they even knew what mobbing was, 75% of them stated that they were not informed about mobbing, but still 90% of the respondents answered that they knew what mobbing was. However, if we look at how the respondents answered and how they defined mobbing, it can be concluded that out of the 90% who think they know what mobbing is, only 76% respondents really know what exactly is meant by the term mobbing.
When asked if they had ever been a victim of mobbing, 66% respondents answered positively, and as many as 53% of these 66% respondents answered that it was committed by a supervisor or a superior colleague. 94% of the respondents know exactly how to recognize mobbing, that is, the way in which it is committed, and thus gave an appropriate description of the question - "in what way were you mobbing?" Because according to the law, a period of at least 6 months of continuity is provided for in order to be considered that an employee has been mobbing, the question was asked how long the mobbing lasted, with 38% of the respondents answering that the mobbing lasted more than 6 months, sometimes even for years, and 37% that it was committed for less than 6 months. 85% answered that they have evidence of this.
Regarding measures taken or not taken, the respondents answered:
- 64% that they have taken protective measures
- 51% Taking the measures helped them in a positive resolution of the case
- 69% The adoption of the measures brought them less favorable conditions than before
- 28% involved a lawyer, a union, an NGO to assist with the case
- 10% initiated legal proceedings
- 4% did not have any negative consequences for their work
- 70% do not have confidence that the court proceedings can end in their favor.
When asked whether experiencing mobbing affected your health/relationships with family and friends, 841% of respondents who experienced mobbing responded positively, meaning that their health was impaired.
When asked if they had witnessed mobbing and if so, what they did in that case, 65% answered that they had witnessed mobbing, of which 17% did nothing, and 68% offered advice and talked to the colleague. When asked whether they would testify if a colleague of theirs were being mobbed, 29% of the respondents answered that they would not testify, and one of the reasons they cited was fear of losing their job.
Finally, 531% of respondents answered that they do not know how to protect themselves from mobbing.
You can view the research in its full form below:
The project "Report mobbing, do not remain silent, we are not gender equal with mobbing", implemented by Glasen Tekstilec is supported by Reactor - Research in Action and their partners through the action "Advancing gender equality in the EU accession process". The action is funded by the European Union and co-financed by Sweden. This document has been produced with the financial support of the European Union, co-financed by Sweden. The content is the sole responsibility of Glasen Tekstilec and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or Sweden.
